I Love
westerns—TV series and movies. So it probably
comes as no surprise I consider the Buffalo
nickel the most beautiful U.S. coin. If
Hollywood had wanted to issue its own Wild West
coin, it couldn’t have come up with anything
better than the Buffalo nickel.

That isn’t exactly what sculptor James Earle
Fraser had in mind when he designed the nickel.
He decided on Indian head and buffalo designs
because they were “purely American” symbols.
They were supposed to represent liberty, even if
many Indians were living on reservations and the
buffalo or American bison was nearly extinct.

The first Buffalo nickels were released in 1913.
Movie theater patrons handed over more than 6
billion nickels that year.

Several motion picture Indians claimed to be the
model for the nickel. One of them was Chief John
Big Tree, who appeared in many movies, including
“Red Fork Range,” released in 1931. A press
release said:

“Chief Big Tree, who posed for the Indian
profile used by the U.S. Government on the
Buffalo nickel, appears in a prominent role in
Big 4’s ‘Red Fork Range.’

“He has an imposing presence, standing over six
feet five, and speaks English in his own
peculiar way.

“’Shoot-a-nickel’ was the order in vogue on the
lot during the scenes in which this actor
appeared, insofar as ‘shoot’ is the director’s
order—in movie parlance—for the cameraman to
start grinding his camera in order to film the
scene under rehearsal.

“Wally Wales stars in the production, with Ruth
Mix appearing opposite. Alvin J. Neitz
directed.” A photo with the write-up showed Big
Tree wearing a headdress. The caption read,
“When Uncle Sam needed an Indian head for his
Buffalo nickel, he used Chief Big Tree—a perfect
example of a sure-nuff Indian. The Chief is a
heap-good actor as well!”

Big Tree also had a role in “Drums Along the
Mohawk” in 1939, but he was not the Indian on
the nickel. The story about the actual models
and the false claimants is so involved I won’t
go into it any more here, except to say the
portrait was a composite.

Like the motion picture industry, the government
knew the value of public relations. On Feb. 22,
1913, President William Howard Taft and 33
Indian chiefs were presented samples from the
first bag of Buffalo nickels to go into
circulation. The New York Times said the chiefs,
standing in drizzling rain, took the coins in
hand and stared at them curiously.

It happened during ground-breaking ceremonies
for the National Memorial to the American Indian
at Fort Wadsworth, N.Y. The ambitious project
was never completed, and no trace of it remains
today. But the Buffalo nickel is still around
and admired as possibly the greatest U.S. coin
design, just as it has been for nearly a
century.

Momentum

The Buffalo nickel was a long time coming, and
not everyone wanted to see it happen. As early
as 1899, a letter published in the New York
Times urged the use of designs other than a
Liberty Head and “V” on the nickel.

For most people, the question was all about art.
In July 1912, the Christian Science Monitor said
the Liberty Head nickel did not coincide with
the Treasury Department’s conception of art. The
newspaper reported the Treasury secretary had
decided to replace the Goddess of Liberty with
the “head of an Indian.” No mention was made of
the buffalo on the other side.

The same month, the Daughters of the American
Revolution issued a statement opposing the
replacement of the Goddess of Liberty on the
nickel, saying it would be a “blow to
patriotism.”

Instead, Belva Lockwood, head of the
organization, suggested busts of presidents be
used on coins. But government officials were not
swayed, and they went ahead with plans for the
Buffalo nickel. Mint Director George Roberts
approved plaster models of the Buffalo nickel
designs in June 1912.

Immensely Beautiful

People expected a lot from the Buffalo nickel.
Maybe too much. Treasury Secretary Franklin
MacVeagh tried to lower expectations a little
while promising the new nickel would be worth
the wait.

“A new five-cent piece will shortly be issued
with designs that will again assist the art
standards of our coinage,” MacVeagh wrote in his
annual report. “Coins have always aimed to be
works of art, both in ancient and modern times.
We do not hope, under present conditions, to
equal the coins of the great ancient periods.
The artists then had a far greater opportunity,
because the coins did not have to be stacked.
Notwithstanding our practical limitations,
however, modern coins can still be immensely
interesting and beautiful, and the designs for
the new nickel will give this coin a place with
the best modern work.”

Art in Miniature

Unlike many other coins, the Buffalo nickel was
more than a piece of change—it was a miniature
sculpture with bold images and rough-hewn
surfaces.

“New nickels of an entirely different design
than the present piece will make their
appearance in Cedar Rapids within a few weeks,
the Feb. 10, 1913, issue of The (Cedar Rapids)
Evening Gazette reported. They are called the
Buffalo nickel and have a buffalo figure on one
side and an Indian’s Head on the obverse.

“The Buffalo nickel is a work of art in
miniature, designed by the distinguished artist
J.E. Fraser of New York. On the obverse side is
the head of a Cheyenne chief without the war
bonnet but with a feather arranged in his
plaited hair.”

An editorial in the Chicago Tribune called the
Buffalo nickel an artistic coin—one that could
never be mistaken for anything else.

The March 14, 1913, issue of The Fort Wayne
Sentinel said the general opinion of the press
was the new nickel was an improvement over the
old one and was “an example of the designer’s
highest art.”

One Outstanding Truth

Even self-proclaimed experts who engaged in
nitpicking had to admit the Buffalo nickel had
many positive qualities.

“The advent of a new coin is always of absorbing
interest to the community for which it is
issued, the American Journal of Numismatics said
in 1913. “This is the case not only because it
is to be of general and popular use, and should
appeal to the many who are to handle it, but
also because of less commendable considerations.

“The interest of connoisseurs is of course
aroused, for many reasons—chief among them an
honest concern for the artistic treatment of the
coin.

“There was nothing of the usual lacking in the
reception of the new five-cent piece in the
early months of the past year. The foolish
criticisms, the customary canards, the old
established greetings of a new coin, were all in
evidence.

“It may not have been wise to place a type on
each side of the small piece. A simpler reverse
might have been better. The Indian head and the
buffalo may be too softly modeled for coin
types. Perhaps inscriptions have been sacrificed
to the types, so that the former are too small
and the latter too large for the size of the
field.

“But with all the faults that may be alleged
against the new piece, one outstanding truth
remains, that Mr. Fraser’s designs are works of
art, powerfully modelled, and strong.”

Radically Different

Most critics loved the Buffalo nickel, but there
were a few dissenting voices. Photographs of the
obverse and reverse appeared in the March 1913
issue of The Numismatist, with the following
commentary:

“Through the courtesy of the Hon. George E.
Roberts, Director of the United States Mint, we
are enabled to show in this number a
reproduction of the new five-cent piece, which
is now being coined at the Mint. It was intended
to issue this coin early in February, but it was
not until Feb. 17 that regular coinage started,
when one press began producing them at the rate
of 120 per minute.

“The design is radically different from that of
any five-cent piece that has ever been issued at
the Mint, and is slightly concave on both sides,
somewhat like the present ten and twenty-dollar
pieces. Directly under the figure ‘3’ of the
date 1913 on the obverse is the letter ‘F’ for
the designer of the piece, James Earle Fraser of
New York City. It is said that Mr. Fraser took
as a model an Indian of the Cheyenne tribe who
recently visited New York City. The bison was
modeled after a specimen in the New York
Zoological Garden.

“Mr. Fraser, the designer, is reported as saying
that the capital ‘F’ below the date has met with
the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury,
the Director of the Mint, and also the National
Art Commission.

“Already, it is said, the presence of this tiny
letter has aroused a certain amount of
criticism, similar to that which greeted the
appearance of the letters ‘V.D.B.’ on the
Lincoln cent, which resulted in their removal,
doing an injustice to Mr. Brenner, its designer,
and violating all precedents.

“It is to be regretted that the new coin does
not show much more finished die work, which
could easily have been accomplished. We are
inclined to think that the rough finish of the
design will encourage counterfeiters, whose
handicraft need not now fear comparison which it
has met in the past with the ordinarily delicate
and finished Mint issues.

“The new piece certainly has radically changed
the old-time tradition that Columbia is our best
representation of ‘liberty.’ In view of the
rather restricted character of both the Indian
and the buffalo today, it is an open question
whether either is a good symbol of ‘liberty.’
Saint-Gaudens, in an interview, once stated that
his conception of a symbol of liberty was that
of ‘a leaping boy.’

“We still prefer Miss Columbia as the proper
representation of freedom and regret that she
does not appear on the new five-cent piece. We
have no doubt that the original enlarged model
of this design was of handsome character, but
that it would not allow for the great reduction
to the size of a five-cent piece is quite
apparent.

“From an artistic point of view, no doubt, the
design is all that it should be. But there is
another element to be considered in the making
of a coin design, and that is the one of
practicability. For instance, the date and the
motto are in such obscure figures and letters
that the slightest wear will obliterate them
beyond understanding.

“Altogether the new design emphasizes the
absolute necessity of the appointment of a
proper committee to pass upon new coin designs.
Such a committee should be composed of
sculptors, numismatists and die-engravers. One
of this committee should be the Chief Engraver
of the Mint. It will not be until the
appointment of such a committee that we may
expect to see a coin that will embody all the
proper requisites.”

Infamous

When the first Buffalo nickels were released,
the New York Times referred to the reverse as
having a “counterfeit presentment” of a bison.
It was a commentary on the artistic quality of
the design, but it also foreshadowed the arrival
of phony Buffalo nickels.

“The prediction of numismatic experts that the
lead-like appearance of the new nickel, because
of the rough surface, would make easy the
counterfeiting of it, is already being
fulfilled,” the May 1913 issue of The
Numismatist reported.

“From Philadelphia comes the report that the
slot machines [vending machines] in that city
are being flooded with counterfeits. As the
danger of getting bogus coins increases, popular
objection to the new nickel will be still more
pronounced, and may become so strong as to
force, before the year ends, some alteration in
the design that will make it conform more
satisfactorily with what is of practical
necessity in the case of a piece of money of so
wide a circulation as the nickel.”

Antonio de Girolano, Gennaro Biondi and Paolo
Pontonieri were charged with being the first to
counterfeit the Buffalo nickel. Secret Service
agent John Henry arrested them in a New York
City tenement house and seized bogus nickels and
counterfeiting equipment.

Revision

A problem with the Buffalo nickel design soon
became apparent. “The incused field and raised
edge are doubtless intended to prevent the coin
from wearing away,” Spink’s Numismatic Circular,
a British publication, said. “Experienced
numismatists may be pardoned, however, in
feeling somewhat skeptical of this ‘Yankee
notion,’ particularly as the pieces which have
found their way into circulation are by no means
clear and sharp in their inscriptions or in the
details of the type.

“Possibly this may be due to imperfect striking,
which would only make matters worse. But the
prominent relief in which the figure of the
bison, as well as the ground he is supposed to
be standing on, no less than the other extreme
of the unnecessarily low relief of the chief’s
bust, are not conducive to withstand a very
great degree of friction.”

On May 12, 1913, Treasury Secretary William G.
McAdoo ordered a “slight change” in the Buffalo
nickel design. The words “FIVE CENTS” were to be
more clearly defined and in higher relief.
According to a newspaper article, McAdoo had
decided the words were too faintly impressed and
would easily wear off in circulation.

Collectors refer to the original design as the
Variety 1 Buffalo nickel, and the revised
version as the Variety 2. On the Variety 1
nickel, the Buffalo stands on a mound. On the
Variety 2 nickel, the Buffalo stands on a plain,
above a recessed area bearing the inscription
“FIVE CENTS.”

In 1914, Texas coin dealer B. Max Mehl made a
prediction in Mehl’s Numismatic Monthly: “The
future recorder of minor varieties will find a
subject in the first year’s mintage of the
Buffalo/Indian five-cent piece. A comparison of
the first emission with those of later months
shows improvements in sharpness of inscription,
the words ‘Five Cents’ being particularly more
distinct.”

Recall Rumor

The announcement of the design modification led
to rumors of a Buffalo nickel recall. “The
Buffalo Nickel Is To Be Recalled,” said the
headline in the May 20, 1913, issue of The
Evening News. The story added, “Announcement has
been made by Secretary McAdoo in Washington that
no more of the Buffalo nickels are to be put out
by the Mint, and those outstanding will be
gradually called in from circulation.”

But The Numismatist set the record straight:

“Possibly, as we have stated, there may be a
change in the design of the new coin. There can
be nothing, however, in the story going the
rounds that the Government will ‘recall’ the
coins already issued. The Government cannot
repudiate them, nor can it get possession of
hundreds of thousands of them already in
circulation to destroy them. It can only change
the design and issue new coins of that design to
circulate with the others, as was done in 1883,
when the five-cent piece with the word ‘cents’
was issued instead of the piece without
‘cents.’”

Inflation

A nickel used to buy a lot of things, but the
list was beginning to shrink in the early years
of the Buffalo nickel. In 1918 the Hartford
Courant said the Buffalo nickel was becoming
less popular and useful every day. The newspaper
forecasted the Buffalo nickel would be replaced
by a six-cent coin, but it never happened. The
Buffalo nickel remained in production another 20
years.

End of the Trail

Work of art or not, the Buffalo nickel was
difficult to strike, and the date did not hold
up well in circulation. After 25 years—the
minimum statutory life of a coin design without
special action by Congress—the Buffalo nickel
gave way to the Jefferson nickel. The last
Buffalo nickel was struck on April 9, 1938, at
the Denver Mint.

No one seemed to mind at the time. All eyes were
focused on the Jefferson nickel, and little was
said about the passing of the Buffalo nickel.
Not a single complaint was heard from an Indian
reservation or any Indian organization.

The Buffalo nickel had made a big splash in
1913. But striking problems and poor wearability
tarnished its image and shortened its life.
Buffalo nickels lingered in circulation into the
1950s and 1960s, when the popularity of TV and
movie westerns helped make them a collector
favorite. Hobbyists had finally figured it out—a
coin album or folder made the best frame for
Fraser’s masterpiece.